sharecrop

A farmer works the land as a sharecropper.

Definition

1. Verb:
   • To farm as a sharecropper: "sharecrop" means to cultivate land owned by another person in exchange for a share of the crops produced, rather than paying rent in money.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Many poor farmers had to sharecrop on large estates in the South after the Civil War. (They farmed the land in exchange for a portion of the harvest.)
  • The family decided to sharecrop the fields to avoid paying cash rent. (They agreed to work the land for a share of the crops.)

Advanced Usage

• "to sharecrop a plot": to work a specific piece of land under a sharecropping arrangement.

  • He sharecropped a small plot of cotton, but the profits were meager. (He farmed that land in exchange for a share of the cotton harvest.)

• "sharecrop system": a historical agricultural system where landowners provided land, tools, and seed, and tenants provided labor in return for a share of the crop.

  • The sharecrop system often trapped families in cycles of debt. (The arrangement kept them economically dependent.)

Variants and Related Words

• Sharecropper (noun): a farmer who works land owned by another and pays rent with a share of the crop.

  • The sharecropper lived in a small cabin on the landowner's property. (The tenant farmer resided there.)

• Sharecropping (noun): the practice or system of farming land as a sharecropper.

  • Sharecropping was widespread in the rural South after Reconstruction. (The system of shared crop farming.)

Synonyms

• Crop-share: to farm under a crop-sharing agreement.
• Tenant farm: to farm as a tenant who pays rent in produce rather than money.

Phrasal Verbs

• Sharecrop out: to lease land to a sharecropper.
  • The landowner decided to sharecrop out the back fields. (He allowed a sharecropper to farm them.)

Related Idioms

• Work the land for a share: to cultivate land in exchange for a portion of the harvest.

  • They worked the land for a share, hoping for a good harvest. (They sharecropped it.)

• Live off the land's bounty: to survive by farming and taking a portion of the yield.

  • The family lived off the land's bounty through sharecropping. (They depended on the crop share for survival.)